Dancing Around Adulthood

Henry David Thoreau once said, “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.” I take this as code for: Beware of growing up.

I like to slip on a pair of black leather shoes with pieces of metal screwed to the bottom soles and dance around adulthood. My husband finds this perfectly natural, as do most of my friends. Not the part about slipping on tap shoes of course as most of them find this a bizarre thing for a 26-year-old woman to do. As far as taking a few taps around adulthood, well – whether they admit it or not – they join me in the dance.

My column, “Dancing Around Adulthood” offers a window into the thoughts, hopes, and dreams of what Dr. Jeffery Jensen Arnett first termed the “emerging adult” in his recently published book Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties. From the moment I graduated from college, the whole world considered me an adult, even though I didn’t really feel like one. According to Dr. Arnett, about 60 percent of my peers report this “yes and no” feeling when asked if they feel like an adult. Even 30 percent of those in their late twenties and early thirties report feeling in between.

From dealing with the inevitable questions, When are you getting married? When are you having a baby? When are you buying a house? to starting careers and paying the bills, each decision we make feels life-altering and – in many instances – it is. My column offers readers hope that one day we’ll look back and know we made the best choices for us … and had a lot of fun along the way.

Column Samples:

Hungry? Don't look at me!

They’re the cutest little things

3rd-graders weren’t fooled by this ‘substitute teacher’

Unique Christmas gift rekindles an old flame

Self-worth should not be tied to one’s career

Feature Article: Adulthood delayed